Evergreen, Hanjin and Simatech downgrade India to East Africa loop

Evergreen, Hanjin and Simatech have reduced the capacity of their joint India – Middle East – East Africa loop, opened in March.

Originally launched as a four ship service with weekly departures on a 28-day round trip, the loop shifts down to a three ship operation this week. The round trip will be shortened by one day and the sailing frequency will be reduced to one departure every nine days. The Simatech-operated 2,770 teu CAPE MARIN will phase out.

Each of the three operators now provides one ship to the service. The loop’s rotation remains unchanged: Mundra, Karachi, Jebel Ali, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Mundra.

The capacity reduction might be linked to some recent service revamps by MSC, which extended some of its East-Africa to Middle East with additional legs to India. Both MSC’s former ‘Middle East East Africa’ service and its former ‘South Africa Sub Continent’ service now reach Mundra and / or Nhava Sheva and thus compete directly with the service offered by Evergreen, Hanjin and Simatech.